Her parents were Nicholas Meier, a hotel porter, and Josi Kumschick, a waitress and housewife.

[3] From 1959 to 1971, Meier was a member of the secondary school board in Lucerne and was a strong supporter of women's suffrage.

[1] In 1971—the same year that Switzerland granted women the right to vote—Meier was voted into Lucerne's cantonal parliament and subsequently, as a member of the Christian Democratic People's Party of Switzerland, became one of the first 11 women elected to the Swiss lower house, the National Council.

[2] Meier left the Council of States and retired from Swiss politics in 1995.

[3] Meier died in Lucerne on 4 November 2006, a decade after being diagnosed with cancer.